Shuster easily wins another term

Six-term incumbent Bill Shuster won the election for the 9th Congressional District seat.

Six-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, 51, R-Hollidaysburg, was re-elected to the 9th Congressional District in a landslide victory against independent candidate Karen Ramsburg, 50, Mercersburg.

“We’ve got a big challenge here before us,” he said Tuesday night. “I look forward to the challenge.”

He won 73.3 percent of the vote. Ramsburg received 26.7 percent.

Shuster was elected to the House of Representatives in 2001, replacing his father, Bud Shuster.

Shuster is a proponent of smaller government and Second Amendment rights. He said fixing the economy is his No. 1 goal.

“The first and foremost is to get this economy back on track,” he said.

His second priority is national security. He said it is important that both America’s allies and enemies know the country is secure.

With the presidential election too close to call at the time of the interview, he said President Barack Obama should spend carefully if re-elected.

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“There is no way that the president can claim he has a mandate to spend recklessly,” he said.

Shuster voted in favor of the Stop the War on Coal Act in September. This act was written to prevent the U.S. Interior Department from issuing regulations that would adversely affect the coal industry.

He is a chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

His position on the transportation committee granted him a prominent role in drafting toll credit language for a bill that will help secure $35 million for the completion of Route 219 from Somerset to Meyersdale.

He said he plans to run again for committee chairman.

“It will be a very, very busy committee,” he said.

His plans include a railroad bill reauthorization and a new highway bill in two years.

He lives in Hollidaysburg with his wife and two children.

Karen Ramsburg is a proponent of building infrastructure with a green revolution. She is a registered nurse who ran a grassroots campaign. She said she did not accept money from corporations or meet with lobbyists.

“I knew from the get-go that it was an uphill battle,” she said.

She proposed a solution to the health care problem that she said would make health care affordable while allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs. She also proposed a GI bill for coal workers that would retrain them in environmentally friendly jobs.

“I think we put a lot of solutions out there to real problems,” she said.

She won the Democratic nomination as a write-in candidate, which she said made her proud.

She plans to continue activism after a short break. Ramsburg said she is not sure if she will run again.

A third candidate, Paul Ritchey, 75, of Berlin, ran a write-in campaign for the office. Write-in results are not made available for several days.